Planners say no to Ludlow housing plans
Thursday 27th January 2011, 1:00PM GMT.
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Proposals to build five luxury homes in the shadow of an 800-year-old Shropshire church which sparked 200 objections have been rejected by county planners.
But the application will still have to go before Shropshire Council’s strategic planning committee because costs to the authority could be substantial if the decision is appealed by the developer.
It was standing room only at Ludlow Town Football Club yesterday with more than 120 people attending the planning committee meeting to debate the proposal for the homes on land next to Ludlow’s St Laurence’s Church.
The meeting at the Ludlow Football Club
The plans were defeated with councillors voting five to four against, with one abstaining.
The council was told it could face £20,000 costs if the applicants appealed .
Council officers advised approval as a plans inquiry had previously granted permission for five homes on the site, which is still valid.
Andrew Sheldon, from developers St Laurence Homes Ltd, said work had started on the site activating the original permission.
Councillor Cecilia Motley said: “This is a new application for a new determination. Officers say a decision must be reached with material considerations in mind. Consistency in decision making is a consideration.”
Campaigners were delighted by the outcome.
Resident Andy Boddington said: “It’s councillors voting for what’s right for Ludlow and not being bullied by the officers.”
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The application has been refused. I suspect that this is but another step along the journey of this controversial planning application.
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Indeed. Given the strong emotions that this whole ill thought out scheme has aroused, the Chairman of the Planning Committee at the outset of the meeting very unwisely raised the temperature of the proceedings by threatening (there is no other word for it) to eject members of the public who became too vociferous in their opposition to the scheme.
The meeting also showed that some members of the Planning Committee have absolutely not one whit of intelligence in understanding planning legislation; considering that because planning permission had already been granted for a broadly similar scheme (on appeal) that they were duty bound to grant planning permission for this so-called revised scheme.
Several members also seemed unable, or unwilling, to grasp the fact that there are sound planning reasons for refusal: the impact of the proposal on the Ludlow Conservation Area by virtue of its scale and design and the injurious effect the scheme would have on St.Laurence’s Church and the Reader’s House, both Grade I Listed Buildings of national importance.
The Councillors were, initially, more concerned that if they refused this scheme and if the developer appealed and won his appeal then the Council might be liable for costs – put at a paltry £20,000 by the Council’s own solicitor present at the meeting. That is a trivial amount. And a lot of “ifs” and “mights”. Since when has the fact that a developer might win permission on appeal, or the possibility of costs being awarded against a local authority, appeared in any Planning Act? Answer – they don’t.
Either conservation policies in respect of the built environment mean something or they don’t. If they don’t, scrap the system and let’s have a free-for-all. Fortunately, there were several councillors made of sterner resolve than some of their lily livered compatriots; the scheme was refused permission, but it will now be referred to the Council’s strategic Planning Committee.
I have to say if these are the people who are supposed to be representing us, then we are doing a woeful job of choosing our elected representatives who are there to listen to and serve us as the electorate; not to dictate to us – something some of the Coubncillors present seem singularly to have forgotten.
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i take it all back and humbley apologise to those wise planners. i now hope the matter may rest in perpetuity and the palmers guild stained glass windows may remain fully lighted. rocky russell ol cpt 1954, devon
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Even if the development was ever built, in either of the two proposed guises, neither would interfere with the light coming into the church through the fifteenth century glass in the Palmers’ Chapel. The scheme(s)would, however, affect the natural lighting of the medieval glass in the East window of the choir/chancel of St.Laurence’s Church.
Granted, the development site is an overgrown derelict mess and needs to be developed/tidied up, but this should not be achieved with the density of the development as proposed. Even the Planning Inspector said a smaller scheme had much to commend it. The size of the present scheme is solely down to the greed of its would-be promoter.
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No doubt the applicants will go to appeal and get it approved that way.
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Yes, this development is clearly more of a scandalous social and environmental threat that say, the expansion of that lovely but sadly misunderstood Tesco store in Shrewsbury, or that pink fluffy and cuddly Biomass plant in Bishops Castle…… not.
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Cannot really understand why the objectors were getting so excited. There is an existing planning permission on the site (which was granted on appeal) and to my way of thinking the proposal was much better than the what the existing planning permission will give. One wonders whetehr the applicant will continue to fight or will just get on woth developing the site under the existing permission?
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i hope if the developers were to pursue this lost cause they might come up against a higher authority than shropshire cc planners, no less than the secretary of state for the environment. does ludlows mp have a view, his silence is deafening, or am i doing him a disservice.
rocky russell OL CPT 1954
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